LineFORM MIT's Shape-Changing Interface

LineFORM is a creation of the MIT Media Lab's Tangible Media Group. It provides actuated curve interfaces for display, interaction and constraints.

(LineFORM shape-changing interface)

We propose a novel Shape Changing Interface which has the form of a “Line”. Lines have several interesting characteristics from the perspective of interaction design: abstractness of data representation; a variety of inherent interactions / affordances; and constraints as boundaries or borderlines. By utilising such aspects of lines together with the added capability of shape-shifting, we present various applications in different scenarios such as shape changing cords, mobiles, body constraints, and data manipulation to investigate the design space of line-based shape changing interfaces.

Philip K. Dick fans no doubt are thinking of the shape-shifting machine (the "M") from his 1957 short story The Unreconstructed M. This enigmatic machine can transform itself at will into apparently innocent objects - but it's only waiting to strike.

Beam, holding the cigaret lighter, walked toward the M. A receptor stalk waved toward him and the machine retreated. Its lines wavered, flowed, and then painfully reformed. For an interval, the device struggled with itself; then, reluctantly, the portable t-v unit again became visible.